Azusa : Campus to Add 3 Buildings

Azusa Pacific University has scheduled a mid-October start for construction of three buildings on its main campus at Alosta and Citrus avenues in Azusa, signaling the end of 21 years of two separate campus locations. Centralization of the 2,900-student university is expected to begin as a result of the recent $5.9-million sale of the university’s 40-acre hillside campus north of Sierra Madre Avenue to the Church of the Open Door, said Hank Bode, the university’s vice president and treasurer.

Work on a modernized School of Theology and administrative offices, music building and a 300-seat recital hall can begin as soon as the Church of the Open Door pays the school for the hillside property. The church must receive payment from the buyer of a building it owned in downtown Los Angeles before it can pay the school.

The university now provides bus service to students traveling the 2 1/2 miles between the two campuses, and schedules 20-minute breaks between classes to allow for travel time. Class times will be rescheduled when construction is completed, Bode said.

The hillside property sale is the first phase in the development of a projected $40-million master plan for the university, under which it hopes to build additional facilities on the 51-acre campus by its centennial in 1999.